Garden Topics: Design Ideas
Create A Mailbox Garden
Follow these six easy steps to make your mailbox
garden.
- Create a design plan for your garden considering
plant texture, color, hardiness and mature size. We
can help you with this step if you bring in accurate
dimensions and several pictures of the general area.
- Lay out the garden bed's outline and then mark
the perimeter with spray paint. Use a sharp spade to
cut through and remove the sod, which you can
replant elsewhere on bare patches of lawn. An easier
alternative would to spray the established
grass/weeds with Bonide's 'Kleen Up'. (Wait 10 days
while the sprayed grass dies before proceeding.)
- Amend the soil with bags of organic 'Bumper
Crop' soil compost and high-quality topsoil; dig the
amendments into the soil.
- Arrange the potted plants, moving them until you
are pleased with the scheme, balancing colors and
sizes and leaving growing room between them. Remove
the pots and dig planting holes. To boost drainage
of sensitive plants like dianthus, sedum and
lavender, add generous handfuls of coarse sand and
pea gravel to the bottoms of the holes, then plant.
- Water and mulch: Water each plant deeply. Spread
a 2-inch layer of chopped bark mulch among the
plants.
- Water and deadhead throughout the season: Water
once or twice a week the first season, depending on
the weather. Snip off any spent flowers.
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